


Mutual Respect

by aseies



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24312526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aseies/pseuds/aseies
Summary: Tumblr prompt: "Nico and Thalia. Awkward compliments."
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace
Kudos: 73





	Mutual Respect

**Author's Note:**

> Originally prompted by Himaryan in 2014.

“So… uh. I heard you’re dating my brother?” Thalia said, awkwardly kicking the wood chips under her feet.

“Uh. Yeah.” Nico rocked his swing ever so slightly. “Something like that.”

“S'cool,” Thalia said, looking anywhere but Nico.

Silence fell between them. Children ran and screamed around the playground, falling down slides, climbing jungle gyms, and crawling up onto the head of the dinosaur that really wasn’t supposed to be climbed but became a local rite of passage.

Nico sighed. “I’m so–”

“Y'know,” Thalia said, leaning back and letting her swing move her back and forth. “Jason talks about you a lot.”

Nico’s eyes followed her. “He does?”

“Yeah. We Iris-message each other at least once a month.” She smiled at him, her freckles curving over the roundness of her cheeks. “He thinks highly of you.”

Nico dug his toes into the wood chips, and stopped his swing. “What about you,” he asked, looking at her. “What do _you_ think?”

“Of you?” Thalia blinked and dug her heels into the ground, causing two deep ruts in the ground. “You’re great. I mean, _really_ different from when I first met you, but that’s not a bad thing. You’ve saved the world _twice,_ as well as my little brother countless times. You’re a hero.”

Nico gripped the chains tightly as his face burned, and decided the wood chips under his feet were very interesting right now. “It wasn’t just me,” he mumbled. “Everyone helped. You too. They couldn’t have held Olympus so long in the Second Titan War without you and the Hunters.”

“True,” Thalia grinned, looking up toward the sky. “But you had a more badass entrance.”

Nico smirked. “Yeah. I did.”

“Hey!” Thalia laughed, shoving Nico off his swing. “You weren’t supposed to agree with me! Complement me back!”

“Or what?” Nico smiled mischievously, and Thalia took it as a challenge.

“Or I’ll do this!” Thalia made a grab for Nico’s neck to hook him into a noogie, but he rolled out of the way.

“Is that the best a Huntress of Artemis can do?” Nico smirked.

“Oh it is _on_!” Thalia grinned. “You’re not getting away from me, Di Angelo!”

And that’s how, come day’s end, Jason found Thalia and Nico collapsed and asleep in the park grass, exhausted from an elaborate game of tag.


End file.
